by Le Xuan Yeo
A megacity is like a pressure-cooker — every building, every street, every piece of infrastructure has a part to play in intensifying the heat, both literally and metaphorically. Although megacities around the world are often lauded for their innovation and opportunity, beneath the glossy surface lies a far more sinister truth: a violent undercurrent that shapes the daily lives of millions of people. Therefore, what does it mean to live in a city where violence is built into the system, from its infrastructure to its economy?
This is one of many questions that Dr. Laurent Gayer’s lecture on Oct. 6, titled “The Violent Fabric of a Megacity”, sought to shed light upon. The lecture focused on his 25-year research in Karachi, and in particular, the city’s resilience amidst violence and economic turmoil. He explored how Karachi maintains a form of democratic order and economic prosperity. Beyond his findings, Dr. Gayer also shared about his research process and experiences living in Karachi. Here are some key insights from his lecture:
The Research Process
All research must begin from somewhere, and for Dr. Gayer, this started from an enigma — something which goes against common sense, that surprises you and motivates you to delve deeper into the topic. If one is unable to solve the enigma, he suggests an attempt to strive towards an explanation of the enigma. For Dr. Gayer, the enigma he constantly returns to is how a city of 25 million people, which seems to be permanently on the brink of civil war and collapse, could nonetheless not only survive the decades of militancy, terrorism, sectarian warfare, gang warfare, but to some extent, also continue to thrive and actually found also resources for prosperity and democracy?
He then conceived his work in the form of a trilogy. The first volume in 2014 discussed the disorder and the struggle for the city, specifically the political component that despite high levels of confrontation, a certain form of democratic order continued to reproduce itself and was never entirely at threat over these years. The second volume confronts the common assumption that capitalism requires stability and predictability to thrive, following the Weberian legal rational hypothesis. Dr. Gayer is currently working on his third volume, with his main informant being his co-author. This serves to acknowledge and put at the forefront the people he works with, as well as aiming to promote a more equalitarian kind of research when researching on the global side.
On Scenes & Narratives
“Sometimes, what is the most striking, the most fertile is not necessarily something you see, something that you experiment, or in the way journalists work, a spectacular scene that would be interesting.”
Dr. Gayer highlights how he does not have personal anecdotes, instead, he works with ethnographic sources. Scenes in his work are not the product of one spectacular moment, but the outcome of familiarity he has developed over the years. From a conversation with his main informant over lunch that allowed Dr. Gayer to visualise so perfectly what transpired three years ago to his informant, to walking around Karachi, he has developed a much deeper knowledge of Karachi due to his extensive period working in the city.
An important distinction Dr. Gayer makes would be between journalists and his work as a scholar. While journalists may work in the heat of the action to get their news scoop, Dr. Gayer was not there to expose himself. Beyond taking precautions in his fieldwork, he mainly worked through relations of friendship and confidence, working with people, as well as sought to revisit the stories of informants’ families as he believes in collaborative effort.
Karachi and the Global Order
The built environment of Karachi bears the imprint of that violent city of various forms of violence. Violence intermeshes and materialises in industrial architecture, such as the textile factories that are reminiscent of prisons: they become death traps in fire accidents, the walls surveil the workers themselves, so that security architecture is as much inward as it is outwards, and thus it also shows this form of brutal accumulation through shared exploitation.
What is most fascinating is how the guard belongs to a private security force managed by an official federal security force led by the army. We observe how capital and the violent brands of capitalism redesign the city with semi-official contracted partnerships with official security forces. This hence represents a deeply complicated, productive and repressive configuration.
Nonetheless, this circumstance is not specific to Pakistan. While Pakistan radicalises this form of gunpoint capitalism, it is only a lens to look at the broader global phenomenon. This is also the story of global capitalism — the coercion we see today, like the US and its transnational predatory extensions right now is very emblematic. Looking into France where we are situated, the construction of the highly controversial Highway A69 is showing very similar trends to Pakistan. There is collusion between the kiafab, the largest pharmaceutical group in the region, which is the contractor behind that infamous highway project, suggesting how economic groups may control politics.
Conclusion
Is there hope even with violence? Dr. Gayer has certainly heard many stories about Karachi. Some stories may be distressing, but others showcase moments of solidarity, of trust, bonding and generosity across boundaries, in ways that are more intense and unpredictable than ordinary situations.
In our current world where the Global North is regarded as the paradigm of stability, success and development; perhaps what we need is to look at the South, to understand the forms of deviance from the paradigm. Symbolic violence still manifests in the Global North, be it internalised racism where minority groups are symbolically represented as inferior, less capable and even “dangerous,” or historical amnesia where nations downplay and forget the darker parts of their history, to reinforce a dominant national identity that avoids confronting historical injustices. To truly reimagine urban spaces all across the world would necessitate a comparative critique of the current global systems, that prioritise profit over human welfare, and a commitment to reshaping global inequalities.
Le Dragon Déchaîné 